Review 731: The Best American Travel Writing 2016

The Best American Travel Writing 2016: Illuminating Essays on Why We Travel by Bill Bryson
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I tend to enjoy the various series of "Best American" although I have read very few of them in full. A few of the early essays felt that categorizing as travel was slightly generous. One example is the essay "How Can We Find More People Like You?" by Sara Corbett, where she discusses how Airbnb is finding it hard to expand in Japan. Or the essay The Actual Hollister by Dave Eggers discussing the town of Hollister and the Hollister clothing business. They felt more orientated towards a business than the experience of travelling.

Further in the essays move more towards what I expected. And some essays were by people living in other countries, which I think are expatriates, not necessarily a traveler. Each essay in the collection had hook which made the essay worthwhile for me to read. None were very long, as they are taken from essays previously published in magazines or journals from the prior year.

One of the last essays, “Invisible and Insidious” by William Vollman, was about radiation in Japan after the disaster in Fukushima caused by the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The author kept visiting the area and measuring the different types of radiation, as well as talking to residents in the affected area. This essay is one that will stick with me the most.

Review 730: Biography of Silence

Biography of Silence: An Essay on Meditation by Pablo d'Ors
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

This is a very short book. It is a series of very short essays from the author about his experience with meditation. Overall, the book was good, but I did have some confusion as well.

He says at first he was not trained, just started doing it. But later he talks about having a teacher or meditating with others. The blub says he’s a Spanish priest and Zen disciple, but he does not come across as a priest, or at least a traditional one. Mostly it seems he talks about wanting to be a writer, not being a priest, so that’s confusing. In the end, that doesn’t matter really if he is a priest or a writer. Although having written this book he is at least a writer…

The very short essays are like vignettes into his life around meditating. Some of the short essays morph into why it is good to meditate, what can be expected, although he also says do not start to meditate with any goals in mind. The book was not about how to meditate either, although perhaps a few hints can be gleaned. The book mostly discusses how paying attention and being in oneself can enhance your life.

Review 729: The Summer Guest

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The book is about several people who are deeply involved in a summer camp in Maine. It covers generations. The book is told in alternative POVs between four people and culminates in a fifth voice, a child of one of the characters and provides a sort of epilogue.

One of the voices is the summer guest Harry, who is a very rich man. In the current time he comes this year to die at his favorite place. He also just bought the camp and left it in his will to a young man Jordan who works there, his voice is one of the POVs. This change of ownership, of course, causes some stirrings. The camp had been in the family for a very long time.

In addition, the book is also about the couple Lucy and Joe who own the camp and just sold it to Harry. Their daughter Kate is the final epilogue voice. Joe was drafted into the Vietnam war and his father who was wounded and disfigured from a previous war. He wanted, and perhaps forced, Joe not to go. Joe ends up being a draft dodger. There are consequences for this, and just as him and Lucy started being a couple.

The timeline for the book was back and forth, not linear. It took a bit to get settled into the story with the timeline and characters shifting. I listened to the audiobook version and there was a different narrator for each character, which helped to keep things straight.

The book was well done, but nothing spectacular. This also may have been his first novel.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

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Review 728: Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a collection of nine short stories. I found it mixed, a few I really enjoyed, while others not so much.

The characters in these stories are in the United States from India or Bangladesh. The stories explore the cultural aspects of the people while living in a different type of society. There is the juxtaposition of the way things are done in America to how these characters were raised.
I enjoyed the last story, The Third and Final Continent. A young man needs temporary lodging while he waits for his new wife to come to American and join him. He finds a room with an elderly woman, and he is very surprised when he finds out she is over 100 years old.

In the second story, When Mr. Pirzada came to Dine, is narrated by a child. Mr. Pirzada is now from Pakistan as the story takes place during the time of India being ripped apart. The family should now dislike and separate themselves from him as their home countries, but of course they do not. I thought this was one of the better stories as well.

Review 727: On the Calculation of Volume III

On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book is the third in the series, and following the pattern begins just after the previous book. I still feel like these books would have been better in one longer work instead of splitting these into smaller parts.

Tara Selter is still repeating the same day of November 18, but now she is not alone. She writes about how they met and what they spoke about when they first met, and much more. There is quite a lot going on in this volume.

There is a section here that repeats part of her pattern in the first book. I thought this lagged the story slightly, but it was entirely understandable.

It's hard to describe what the content is without spoiling the plot, and the discovery of what happens is one of the main draws for me in reading these books. I cannot help but wonder what will happen next.

I have noticed that the translator had changed with this third book from Barbara Haveland to Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell. The quality of the writing is similar, and I could not really tell there was a change other than it was stated in the book. Although, I cannot help but wonder why there was this change.

Previously Read books in series:

• Book 1: On the Calculation of Volume I
•  (5 stars) July.28-Aug.03.2026
• Book 2: On the Calculation of Volume II
• (5 stars) Aug.04-10.2026
• Book 4: On the Calculation of Volume IV
• (4 stars) Sept.01-06.2026 

Review 726: On the Calculation of Volume II

On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book is the second in the series and picks up right where the first book ended. Tara Selter is counting the days that have repeated November 18. In this book she tries to recreate a year of seasons. She visits her family for Christmas, then travels north for a winter. Then later south for spring and summer, staying in Europe. She is trying to trick herself that a year is passing instead of repeating the same day with the same weather.

In this book Tara becomes very interested in Roman history. With this she tries to navigate how to retain the items. A computer will erase all of her searches and saved documents. Things can disappear overnight, going back to where they were on November 17. Tara needs to train items to stay put by having them under her pillow or on the bed. In the case of a chair, she slept in it for several days. But things are not consistent either, just an oddity of this repeating of the same day.

This book ends with another surprise, and so I just keep reading. I love the details and the writing. The books are so short they go quickly, somewhat wish for a longer book instead of being broken into so many parts.

Other Read books in series:

• Book 1: On the Calculation of Volume I
•  (5 stars) July.28-Aug.03.2026
• Book 3: On the Calculation of Volume III
• (5 stars) Aug.10-16.2026
• Book 4: On the Calculation of Volume IV
• (4 stars) Sept.01-06.2026 

Review 725: In Ascension

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
My rating: 3.25 of 5 stars

I'm a bit on the fence about this book. Some parts I enjoyed, while other parts I was bored and couldn't care less. The book starts with Leigh as a swimmer and diver who gets a spot on a research vessel to explore this extremely deep trench just discovered. It’s the deepest trench ever found. While exploring it odd things happen, mostly to the people who went diving.

Later, Leigh now is working on a research project to develop food from what was recovered in that deep trench exploration. So many details about work and her boss. But the past keeps getting brought up, her sister and her grew up with an abusive father. Now her mother is sick, and her sister thinks she should visit, but now Leigh is working in America, another country and it’s hard to get away. Then she gets high security clearance, and it becomes nearly impossible to leave without jeopardizing her job.

Leigh’s work with the recovered algae becomes integral to a project for space exploration that has to do with an ancient object that passed by Earth. She becomes part of a team training to go out into space, grueling training, in that no one expects will come into use. Until it does, the last chance team is the one sent into space.

The book is told in several parts. Somehow throughout everything nearly none of the characters are developed. There's so much oddness in the book, as well as some intriguing bits too.

Review 724: Contrapposto

Contrapposto by Dave Eggers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have enjoyed all the Dave Eggers books I've read before (only three) until this one. It is well written, but I just couldn't get fully into the book.

The book revolves around Cricket’s art and Olympia. Much of the book is taken with the early years of their lives, as kids, teenagers and young adults. But soon enough the years start skipping and we visit Cricket and Olympia at various points in their lives. Art is always there in some form or other.

The writing was decent enough, and Cricket was sympathetic character, while Olympia, not so much. Yet I didn’t get the experience of solid character and life that I was expecting from an Eggers book. Perhaps my expectation was too high. Or the commentary on art as a focus of the book interfered with the book being great.

Thanks to Knopf Publishers and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 723: On the Calculation of Volume I

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seeing this book cover around made me intrigued. I hadn’t read anything about the book, other than it is a translation and knew there are several in this series. I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

Tara Selter was on a book buying trip for her business with her husband Thomas. During this time away somehow, she got stuck in November 18. The day keeps repeating itself. Tara doesn’t end up doing the same thing over and over, at least that is not the description in the novel.

One aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was the descriptions, the level of detail. It reminded me somewhat of Karl Ove Knausgård and his autofiction series My Struggle. However, this is entirely fiction.

The book is short, too short really. It ends with a little cliffhanger of sorts where I had to know what happened next. Happily, I had the next book, volume II, with me as I was travelling. I’ve already finished that and well into volume III. I find this series of short books intriguing and a bit addicting. Unfortunately, not all are translated into English just yet so after the fourth I am going to have to wait.

Later Read books in series:

• Book 2: On the Calculation of Volume II
• (5 stars) Aug.04-10.2026
• Book 3: On the Calculation of Volume III
• (5 stars) Aug.10-16.2026
• Book 4: On the Calculation of Volume IV
• (4 stars) Sept.01-06.2026 

Review 722: We the People

We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a massive book, detailed and covers two and a half centuries. It took me quite a while to read it, months. But I didn’t read this solely, as I could only manage parts at a time. Further in, I was able to read a full chapter in one session, due to the book progressing in time, until almost to today. These later chapters were closer to when I had more information and become more readable at length.

The book begins with a very close look at how the United States Constitution was created. It took many people throughout the colonies, and many discussions. Each state had to ratify the new constitution, and each had their own desires and amendments. Would amendments be able to be added or not was a discussion. Who presented what to the constitutional congress, what their state desired, and all these minute details were discussed in length. It was very much in the weeds.
After the constitution was adopted, then came the discussion about amendments. As the chapters progressed the amendments would arise around social issues, such as in the later era civil rights or women’s rights, etc.

The book perhaps is a bit like a history book for school. All the minute details about the U.S. Constitution and amendments were more than I really wanted to know. Yet, reading section by section the book seemed good enough to keep going, and ended up being quite a reading project for me. And since this year I wanted to spend time reading about the history of the United States, this book did help to fill in a gap of my knowledge.